'GTA 4' Delay Explained

Take Two president Strauss Zelnick spoke to GameSpot on Friday, and systematically shot-down a host of internet rumors swirling around about the delay of Grand Theft Auto 4. Here's what the man said:

The release date has not been delayed further: " When asked about the release date, I confirmed the previous release date we'd given, which is our second fiscal quarter. That's to say sometime between the beginning of February and the end of April," Zelnick said.

The game was not delayed because of the the PS3's "soft launch," although Zelnick confirmed that the fact that there will be more PS3 owners by the time the game launch will offset the loss-in-sales stemming from GTA 4 not being a holiday release.

There is a bright side to GTA 4's delay: " the side effect of these release dates is that consumers say, 'This is great. I can buy terrific games year-round,' then obviously that would be a good thing for the industry and not just Take-Two."

The big question, though: When, specifically, will the game come out? Zelnick remained cagey: "Obviously we want to make sure not to disappoint anyone, and we're going to give that date as soon as we feel very comfortable that we know the exact date within that three-month period that we outlined," Zelnick said.